South Western Railway, a railway company that operates in the southwest of England, became the first in Iron in the public return on Sunday as part of the campaign to renounce the railroad of the British Labor Government. This is “a new era for the railroad,” welcomed the Ministry of Transportation in a press release.
“We are going to advance with confidence to a new future for the railroads,” he said.
Decrease it in 2000
The privatization of the rail operators took place in the mid -1990s under conservative prime minister John Major, in continuity with the liberal policy of Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s. Despite the promise of a better service, greater investments and less expenses for the State, the project was very unpopular, denounced by unions, opposition, certain conservatives and a large part of the population. The number of passengers has increased to the beginning, as well as investments.
But a derailment caused by micro-ankles in the rails, which left four dead in 2000, deeply shocked public opinion. Cancellations and delays have also become a common place and passengers complained about prices. Since then, the Ferré Network has returned to the public, administered by the company’s network. Four fourteen operators in England have already returned to public control in recent years due to their low performance. But the idea was initially to administer them temporarily before returning to the private sector.
The labor majority, in power since July, approved at the end of November a law that requires nationalizing private operators at the end of their contracts (or even before in case of poor management) to group them in an organization called “large British railroads.” According to the end of the contracts, according to the Government, it allows us to avoid compensation for current operators. All will expire for 2027.
“Structural problems”
The unions of the sector, which have launched in recent years a wave of strikes under the pressure of the crisis of purchasing power caused by inflation, have received the recovery of the State.
The return of these companies in the public return “will ensure that the services are administered in the interest of the passengers, and not the shareholders”, but will solve “the structural problems that hinder the railway network (…) will take time,” warned Minister Heidi Alexander. The Government announced in December that the first company in question would be South Western Railway. The C2C company will continue on July 20 and then Greater Anglia on October 12.
Since Sunday, the Railway operations of the South Western will be administered by a new public operator that will be intended to integrate into Great British Railways once the company is believed.
Source: BFM TV
